Concordia university (1-5, 1-1 nsic) saw an 11 point second half lead slip away as they fell 82-74 to bemidji state (4-3, 3-0 nsic) on friday evening at bsu gymnasium in bemidji, minn. The loss for the bears was the first since head coach paul fessler took over the team. In his seven seasons with cu, fessler is now 13-1 against bsu.

the bears were led in the post by amanda behnke and candace olstad who each recorded double-doubles as behnke scored 16 points while olstad added 15 with duo each grabbing 12 rebounds.

the bears offensive was more than just a down-low attack as kelly lund stretched the defense with 17 points, drilling three three-pointers in just four attempts as she kept the beavers out of their aggressive zone defense.

the concordia guard play was led by katie laviolette's nine assists while freshman jamie jones contributed four.

concordia struggled early as bemidji state's three-point shooting was hot out of the gate, propelling bsu to an early 24-14 lead, their largest of the game, with 11:49 to play.

but concordia responded with a swift 9-0 run to cut the score to 24-23 before eventually tying it up at 28 with an olstad layup at the 7:40 mark.

the beavers reclaimed and then held on to the lead until a lund three-pointer gave concordia their first lead of the game, 35-33 with 3:14 to play in the half.

the bears extended the lead to four but went into the break leading 39-36 and held bsu without a field goal for the final 6:56 in the opening 20 minutes.

in the second half, the bears continued to exert their control as they dominated bsu, extending their lead to the largest of the game for either team when lund drilled another three-pointer to put cu up 58-47 with 12:19 remaining.

the bears held on to their strong lead at 65-57 until the beavers scored five unanswered points to make it 65-62 with 7:00.

a layup by olstad with 6:02 put concordia back on top by five but the beavers turned around and put up seven straight points to reclaim the lead for the first time since the 3:14 mark in the first half, 71-69 with 4:20 to play.

from there it was all beavers as the bears forced just one tie and never reclaimed the lead. Bsu converted 15-19 from the free throw line in the second half to seal the victory.

bsu was led by stephanie peterson who had 16 points and 17 rebounds while karlee simonson also had 16 points. In a balanced scoring attack in which four starters reached double-figures and the fifth starter had nine points, bsu also had solid contributions off the bench as kate bremmer scored eight points (all in the first half) while colleen broell had seven points.

concordia will look to get back in the win column tomorrow evening when they travel to take on minnesota, crookston for a 6:00 p.m. Nsic tilt.